The Irish vote last week to allow gay marriage marked a "defeat for humanity," said Cardinal Pietro Parolin today (May 26, 2015), the Vatican secretary of state and the Pope's top lieutenant. The comments mark the highest-level reaction from the Catholic Church to Ireland's groundbreaking referendum, according to the FT (Financial Times) website.
Cardinal Parolin was reflecting the unease and dismay the Irish result had triggered within the upper reaches of the Vatican, which opposes same-sex marriage and campaigned against its approval in Ireland.
"I am very sad because of this result -- the Church needs to strengthen its efforts to spread its message," Cardinal Parolin said in Rome today. "I really think we should not just speak of this as a defeat for Christian principles, but also a defeat for humanity," he added.
Irish voters backed gay marriage by a wide margin -- with 62.1 percent in favor and 37.9 percent against -- in a sign of rapid social transformation in the small and overwhelmingly Catholic country. Ireland has now become the first nation in the world to approve same-sex marriage by popular referendum.
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